The new stable boy

The more I moved, the more I felt my strength return, but the stiffer and more tired I became.

With some strength coming back to my arms, I brushed Fritz down again, this time able to apply enough pressure for it to make a difference.

When I tried to leave though, she blocked the door. "Fritz… I have to go to bed. I'm tired enough already."

She laid down in front of it. She was too big for me to step over, and there was no easy way of unlatching the door to open it either.

"Come on Fritz…" I whined. I had gotten a lot of sleep over the past few days, but my body was still incredibly tired.

She just stared at me and that was how I ended up spending the night in the stables. Honestly speaking it was far more comfortable than my room, and warmer too, since I had Fritz besides me. Her soft fur made for a much better bed than the hard wood frame in my room.

When all was said and done I woke up refreshed, feeling my energy starting to return even further. I got up, and Fritz followed, finally moving away from the door.

I brushed her one more time just because I could. If anything, it was more for me than her actually needing it.

I began to make out distant footsteps. 'Must be the guard in charge of feeding the horses.' I thought. After what had happened the other day I wasn't worried about anyone seeing me with Fritz, she needed to be taken care of just like the other horses, and I was the only one that could do it, everyone knew that.

Suddenly, I heard the stall latch pop open. Frits jumped up neighing loudly and moving towards me as I felt a yank on my arm. Before I realized what was happening I was sliding across the floor on the outside of the stall, bumping my head into the hard stone wall.

"AGH!" I heard a cry of pain from a young boy before he leapt over the stall door. Frits kicked the door violently so that it slammed open and bounced closed again. As he landed he turned and closed the latch before stepping back slowly, collapsing against the wall next to me with a sigh of relief. "Hey, you alright?" He was holding his head and I could see blood dripping past his hands

I felt a burning pain in my chest start to rise from the adrenaline and sudden stress, but I felt mostly fine. I nodded and got up slowly. I was a little dizzy, but managed to catch my balance after steadying myself against the wall.

"Listen, I don't know who you are. But that horse is crazy alright, no one is supposed to go near that thing, we had to put a special latch on the stall to stop it from breaking out.

Hearing him talk about Frits like that made me angry. 'The only reason you even got hurt was because you scared her.' I looked across to Fritz' stern face. 'No, it was because she was trying to protect me most likely.'

"It's fine alright. You didn't need to do that" I raised a hand to my head as well. I doubted I would end up bleeding, but I could tell it was going to leave a nasty bruise.

"Seriously, it's dangerous!" he continued. "It broke my Pa's ribs. That's why I'm here doing his chores." I understood where he was coming from, but his shouting only made the pain in my head even worse as I began to hear a dull ringing.

I tried to stay calm. Clenching my fist, I stared at him down. "She only jumped like that because she was protecting me…" 'No, none of that matters right now, Frits is strong and he's bleeding.' "Hey, what about you are you ok? Did she kick you?" He was right about one thing, horses were dangerous.

"Oh uh yea ill be fine."

I scoffed. he managed to neither answer my question, or actually give me a real answer to whether or not he was ok. Well… He's bleeding but that's to be expected from any wound to the head. His speech isn't slurred or anything, and honestly he looks like he can balance better than I can. Maybe Fritz kicked her bucket into him instead of kicking him directly.

I grabbed his hand and pulled it away from his head. It looked more like a cut than a bruise which was odd, but pretty much guaranteed it wasn't a wound from Fritz. To be honest I couldn't actually make an accurate assessment though, my vision was a bit blurred from my own head injury. 

I was almost sure I had a concussion. "Well. anyway you should clean that, an open wound in a dirty place like this has a decent chance of getting infected, even if we try to keep it rather clean."

He pulled his hand back away from me and stepped back, "See, it's dangerous, what were you thinking girl? Where's your pa, I'm taking you to him, he can deal with you."

As he jerked his hand away it made me lose my balance and I fell to my knees "Agh, you're so annoying. Do what you want, just leave me out of it… Although if I were you I'd see the doctor first. You probably have a concussion you know." In truth It was unlikely for him, for me though… Even kneeling down it felt like the world was spinning.

"A what? Did you hit your head when you slid across the floor?"

'I thought that much would be obvious.' "Look… It was very kind of you to try and save me, however, you clearly misread the situation, Frits is only bad around other people, she is fine with me. So you can go to the doctor, or finish your chores or whatever, I honestly don't care, just leave me out of it. I need to give her some more food and wash her off."

As bad as my head hurt I was surprised I was still able to think and speak clearly. Raising a hand to it I felt blood start to leak out from my head and soak into my hair. 'Great, just what I need.'

I managed to get off my knees and prop myself up against the wall but he wouldn't stop pestering me. "What are you anyway? Like 5?" He raised his hand to his chin. "Guess that's why I haven't seen you around. Should you even be out of the barracks alone? I'm taking you back, by force if I have to, just come on already"

'There's no way I really look like a 5 year old do I?' "WHY WONT YOU JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!" I yelled, clenching my fist tighter and pushing him away. If it came down to it I was trained in hand to hand combat, if he actually did try to take me by force I could probably flip and beat the tar out of him.

'No, the floor here is made of stone and his head is already hurt.' I tried to take a breath, but my head pounded, and I was still trying to get my wind back.

He reached out to grab my arm and I twisted it around his back pushing up on his shoulder.

"Agh!"

I eased up as he cried out in pain, afraid I might have hurt him.

He forced himself out of my hold and grabbed my arm, tugging on it hard. His fingers pinched and twisted the skin around my wrist as he squeezed it as tightly as he could.

He was probably as annoyed as I was and it was beginning to show. The entire situation was ridiculous. My arms still ached and felt sore, and all of my joints were stiff. When he pulled on my arm I couldn't help but let out a short yelp. He stopped instantly and looked back "What did you do to your arm?"

I reached out and grabbed it with my other hand, pulling it away from him. "Nothing…" I looked down at it. There was already a bruise where he grabbed me. 'There's no way I'm that weak right now is there?'

I slowly poked it. 'This must be a side effect from the strangle weed. Maybe I'm still affected by it? Or maybe it's because I'm growing? No, that doesn't make sense.'

He looked at me like he was deep in thought, probably trying to think of how to best force me to do what he wanted with as little violence as possible. He just "saved me" so I doubted that he wanted to hurt me. He was being so stubborn though that I wasn't sure how to get out of the whole situation.

Eventually I just gave up. "I'll go to the barracks…" I said softly. Unconsciously holding my arm. 'There's no fighting it, at least this way I wont end up getting hurt.' "Just dont touch me… alright…"

"You mean, you'll come willingly?" He was shocked, and the stupid look on his face told me he wasn't expecting me to say that. The thought of what might have happened to me if I refused was a frightening one though. Especially if just grabbing my arm was enough to leave a bruise. On top of the strength difference, all of the sudden movement had made me even more dizzy.

"It's not like I have a choice… I really don't like getting hurt, you know… My father won't be there though, he's probably either in his room, or his study… Hard to say which." 

"He doesn't live in the barracks? Are you a craftsman's daughter?" It was true that some of the craftsmen had their own houses outside of the barracks, but this was because they lived in their shops. For instance our blacksmith lived in the building next to his forge, and Elsie was a tailor. I certainly wasn't the daughter of a craftsman though.

"No," craftsman daughter huh? That might have been nice. "My father is lord Keigan. I live in the main house." The boy laughed and brushed it off as a joke, I simply ignored him and turned my face away as we walked. "Wel… whatever, you'll find out the truth eventually."

'I thought as much. If he won't believe that i'm the lord's daughter the only way to get him off my case is going to be to show up to the barracks and have the guards tell him. I can't blame him for doubting me though. Honestly even if I was five it feels like I should be more impressive than I am now'

"Seriously though, what made you wander off to the stables, a lot of animals can be dangerous you know, even the bigger calmer horses can hurt you if they get scared."

I didn't respond. It was childish of me, but I had tried explaining it all to him before and he just ignored it, so I decided to return in kind. I just focused on keeping my balance, and trying not to trip over Finlo's cloak. Luckily, I regained my barings after a brief time and the dizziness faded as we got closer to the barracks.

He lifted his hands up and clasped his fingers behind his head. "Going quiet huh… Alright then…"

We walked the rest of the way in silence until we entered. As soon as the door opened the smell of sweaty men, burning wood, and strong liquor filled the air. It was a smell I had grown quite fond of, odd as it was.